Samsung’s weapon in their latest Apple trial? Andy Rubin

In the ongoing saga that is Apple vs Samsung, the latest trial seems to point toward another Apple win. Taking place this week in California, Apple is again seeking damages for patents they feel Samsung infringed upon with several handsets. Though it seems like a lost cause, Samsung may be looking to Google and the former Android chief to help out.

Andy Rubin is listed as a possible witness in the latest spat, along with another Google engineer. Rubin is expected to testify to Android’s involvement with several of those patents in question, like search and background data sync. Unlike the first trial, this one may not be so cut and dry for jurors.

Samsung will concede that “slide to unlock” is one patent that can be considered unique to the iPhone, but the rest are still in question. Rubin’s involvement with the case could highlight that Apple didn’t have the leg-up in software design as they did in hardware. It’s important to note that Rubin previously worked at Apple, though his tenure (1989-1992) was short, and he’s listed as a “Manufacturing Engineer” there. His time is also well before the iPhone came out, and possibly predates iOS development.

While the original trial centered around hardware design, this latest quarrel is a bit more difficult. Samsung is essentially arguing that Apple wasn’t first to establish IP regarding the patents in question, even if patents are held. Apple is seeking about $40 per phone for the patents in question, and their argument covers several older Samsung models. If Samsung can effectively prove their case, it brings the dollar amount significantly lower. If not, they’ll owe Apple about $2 billion — twice the amount as it was in their previous case.